Chapter 5:Ultimatum, Part 2

Six pairs of eyes cast harsh glares at Jewel; it caused her to flinch.

Blu was right; the frustration and bewilderment they had so carefully hidden from him was being forced upon his mate.

"Why did you do those things to Papa?" demanded Ricardo.

"I thought you loved him. I thought you loved us!" added Vicente.

"It's not fair! Why didn't you listen to him?" concluded Esperanza.

Jewel was on the verge of tears, but Blu flashed her a glance and she steadied her nerves.

"Listen, I know I was wrong... oh so wrong! But like I told your father, the past is set in stone. None of us can change it. All I ask of you, my children, is that you find it in your hearts to forgive me. Can you do that much? Please?"

The three macaws were hesitant to answer. She had plagued their family with agony and strife, and forgiveness was not easily won. Still, their father was behind her, soothing her, and the fact that they had made up did count for something.

"We hate what you did, Mama. We don't hate you. We will always love you, but it will be impossible to forget how you made us feel."

"I know, my sweethearts. I will always love you too. I will never forgive myself, no matter how much I try to. There's a hole in here," Jewel pointed to her chest, "that will never be filled. It was all my fault, and that is something I must deal with until my heart stops beating. But for now, there's something I need to ask you."

"What is that, mother?"

"I miss you all dearly, and I want to be back in your lives. I need to hold you again. I need to see the love in your eyes you once had for me return. Please, I need you..."

That was Jewel's tipping point. She hung her head and smashed the internal dam that held back her tears.

"It's okay, honey. I'm right here."

Their father was stroking their mother's quivering form with his wing, and he flashed them a glance that seemed to say, "Well?"

Ricardo, Esperanza, and Vicente locked eyes with each other for several seconds. Their expressions were contemplative, but they were also tinged with pain.

Their mother had returned to set things straight, and she had jumped right to the point. That revealed that she had a facet of bravery inside of her, and that bravery stunned her children. She had committed a grievous crime, but she returned without reasonable delay to try and come to terms with her children.

A side her children never knew existed had just revealed itself. The tears her mother was shedding had convinced them that she was truly making an effort, and that she spoke no words but true ones. It caused them deep-seated pain to see her in distress, and there was only one way to quell it: they would wholeheartedly forgive her.

Mama?" "Yes, dear *sniff* son?"

"I... I mean we... are going to forgive you. We can't stand seeing you cry. It makes us want to shed tears as well. Since you and Papa are back together, we will do the same with you..."

Her lead lifted slightly, just enough for her to be able to see her three caring children.

"Thank you. *sniff* I cried very much when I saw your father as well. He was hurting then too. *sniff* I am just thankful that you decided to forgive me. That makes me feel a little better inside..."

The three bold macaws approached her and hugged her tenderly. Jewel spread her wings and enfolded them around her children just the same.

"I love you, Mama. Please don't cry." said Esperanza.

"So do I." declared Vicente.

"Now we can be a happy family again." concluded Ricardo.

Jewel drew her head back to look at them all at once, the flow of tears diminishing by the second.

"Thank you... so much. I can't live without your father, and I can't live without you three. All five of us need to be together, no matter what happens. If we're not, life just isn't the same anymore. Life isn't complete..."

We understand, mother." they replied softly.

"We'll always be together. It's time to start fresh and forget about the bad things in the past. We need to focus on the future instead." said Esperanza.

"I agree completely. Your father and I are so blessed to have children like you."

They cracked glorious smiles, and as she swiveled her heads towards Blu, that same expression was plastered on his face.

"The storm has passed, honey. A new future awaits us, and we will be its designers. I think there's one last thing that they need to know about."

Her eyes widened at his remark, but she donned a determined face and turned away.

"What are you talking about, Papa?"

Jewel drew a deep breath and said, "There's a chance that I'll become... pregnant. If that happens, your father and I are going to raise the chicks as if they were... our own. There's nothing else we can do."

A flash of shock crossed their faces, and they sat up slightly straighter than before.

"So, we may have more brothers and sisters?"

"Yes, Vicente. I will do my best to raise them, but knowing that your father did not create them will... make that difficult."

"I'll be there to help you, and I'm sure my two brothers will too. The chicks still deserved to be loved and cared for and taught well."

"Those are wise words, Esperanza."

"Thank you, Papa."

A tense cloud of silence remained in the hollow, but it was an upbeat feeling rather than a nervous feeling. Jewel drew away from her children and moved deeper into the hollow, with Blu following just behind.

They let the silence roll on as if to let the gravity of their reunion sink in and establish itself firmly in their minds.

Blu caved in the silence by asking, "Who's up for a lovely breakfast? All of these... unsettling conversations has given me quite an appetite."

"That sounds just fine, my love. Do you want to come along, children?"

"Sure!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Okay then, let's get going. The morning hours only last so long..." cautioned Blu.

The macaw family filed out of the central tree and joined each other in flight.

The ethereal bond between them all had been bolstered immensely, its condition restored. The elation and relief that boiled within their hearts was evident in the strength of their wing-flaps as they searched for a dependable breakfast.

The jungle was in full bloom, and the fauna it had so expertly concealed during the night abounded everywhere.

Families of every species of macaw imaginable chatted in the canopy and flitted about between trees. Frogs could be seen hopping about below every so often, snatching up careless insects that stopped to rest on the trunks of the mighty trees. Lizards sunned themselves under the gaps in the canopy that allowed sunlight to filter through.

This tantalizing display was the epitome of happiness.

This is what life was all about; the freedom to rejoice with friends and family, to breathe the air and smell the world, to embrace the wonders of the rain-forest.

That harmonious energy resonated in the hearts of every single creature, and most strongly so in the five Spix's Macaws that were inevitably overcome by it.

They landed in a tree laden as heavily with berries as it was with macaws. The branches sagged beneath the weight, and the clusters of birds all exchanged greetings and whipped up conversations.

The quintet of aquamarine macaws munched readily on the assorted berries, as did the dozens of other birds on all sides of them.

The heartache and frustration was obliterated; this was their redemption, a silent truth that everything was looking up.

Their bellies were growing fuller by the minute, but still they ate.

"What is up with these berries? I would eat the whole tree if I could! So luscious..."

"Agreed, Jewel! It makes me think of a certain meme I found on the Internet."

Four discombobulated stares prevented Blu from tossing a berry into his beak.

"What on earth is a meme, father?"

"I'll explain later, Ricardo. What matters right now is that your mother is, in fact, utilizing the meme known as 'Om nom nom.' That's the sound one makes when consuming ridiculously good food!"

Melodious laughter ensued from the three macaws, and Esperanza nearly tumbled from the branch in glee.

"I'll show you om nom... whatever!"

A devilish and playful Jewel bit her berry in half and tossed it at Blu. It splatted audibly on the left side of his face and slid off, leaving a cherry-red trail down his face and neck. Now it was Jewel's turn to laugh.

"Ha ha! Take that, mister! Oh man, this is rich!"

"Yeah, it sure is funny alright. All the better for me, since you'll be the one... cleaning it off, honey!"

Blu crept across the branch and placed the stain inches away from Jewel.

She leaned in to his ear and whispered, "I'll take care of it when the kids aren't around, handsome. I think I'll like the taste of Blu-flavored berry..."

She drew away tauntingly, and Blu shuddered with anticipation.

His children ceased their chuckles and asked, "Papa, is something wrong?"

"Not at all! Your mother and I were just deciding on how to best remove this stain from my face. We should be able to find a pond around here and wash it off."

His blatant lie earned acceptant nods from his children, and he breathed a massive sigh of relief.

The macaws went back to eating, and not five minutes later, no another berry was able to fit into their stomachs. They said goodbye to their neighbors – who were giving them sly stares – and decided to head to Blu and Jewel's hollow for a change.

The flight across the kaleidoscopic jungle burned off some energy, but their stomachs were still churning with food. As they squeezed themselves into the silent hollow, a wave of nostalgia washed over them.

The hollow was exactly the way the left it on the beautiful morning two days prior. The nest was clean and tidy, and a few stray feathers lay entrenched among the twigs.

"Ahhh," sighed Blu lovingly. "Home... sweet home..."

"Indeed, my love-hawk! Let's make it official, shall we?"

She whirled him around and kissed him – with a certain restraint due to their offspring's presence – but the rush still left him woozy.

"There!" stated Jewel. "Now we're back where we belong, next to the birds we love, and may that never change."

"Never, honey. We have our lives to live, children to embrace, and friends to enjoy. Decades from now, when we're old and frail, we'll look back on this day and say, 'We did it.' We walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and we made it out alive. We emerged not weaker, but stronger."

"You and mother took the most dreadful of situations and converted it into the most enthralling of occasions. You merely confirmed what countless individuals, both human and otherwise, have experienced. Love is eternal, a ceaseless pact that lingers even past the turmoil of death. You and mother will never be split apart. That's how it was meant to be..."

Esperanza's eloquent speech left them stunned, and they all knew from who she had acquired such talent.

"I do believe our daughter is the result of incredibly refined breeding, honey. She possesses your beauty and my studious brain. A most favorable combination, if I do say so myself."

"And there's nothing wrong with that..."

Esperanza beamed and hugged her two brothers, and their parents shared a second liquefying kiss.

They all hugged and exchanged the simple phrase of "I love you," and yet that phrase was so much more than that. Esperanza's words served to define the deeper meaning of the entity known as "love."

It was indeed eternal and transcended all barriers. It was indeed a pact that could not be broken, a diamond of an oath that was immune to the trials of life.

The quintet of macaws launched themselves into the petal-filled air of the jungle, basking in the sounds of hundreds of enchanted birds and the scents of the ambrosial atmosphere.

They danced and flew about for hours on end; this was their heaven, and they showed no intention of letting it go to waste.

They carved illusory spirals, loops, and waves into the air, and several families of macaws joined in the frolic as well.

Who knew that two rare macaws and their children, who had been separated by a rift of agony and horror, could unite so peacefully and seal that rift with the cables of love?

One thing was for certain: Blu, Jewel, Ricardo, Esperanza, and Vicente knew, and they were living that discovery to the fullest...

In time Jewel discovered - with a mix of uncertainty and charm – that she was indeed pregnant.

Two weeks following the reunion of her and her family, the gnawing hunger and mood swings returned. She invested a herculean effort to keep them under control, for she did not want jeopardize the recovery of Blu's eye should her anger break free from its chains.

Blu took care of her with unflinching loyalty, a loyalty fit for a king and his most esteemed knights.

She produced two innocent, blue-speckled white eggs, and she nurtured them as only a proud mother could.

Blu and Jewel each cooked up several names for the chicks, giving them some leeway when they discovered the gender of the chicks.

Ten days after the eggs were laid, the naked, pink blobs hatched out and were divined to be a male and a female. A surge of raw emotion gripped the family, and Blu and Jewel's three oldest children stopped by shortly after that momentous event.

Blu and Jewel's more distant relatives, like the two toucans and the cardinal and canary, caught wind of the news, and they too paid visits.

They did not know the mass of secrets that lay behind the chicks' origins, and Blu and Jewel were hotly divided as to if those secrets should be made known. Ultimately, during the time that the first tiny feathers emerged on the chicks' bodies, they resolved to spill those secrets once their babies had fully fledged.

A tense week after the hatching, the true appearances of the Spix's Macaw/Lear's Macaw hybrids became known.

The male – who was deemed Natanael, meaning "whom God gave" - bore deep blue feathers shrouding his entire form from head to tail, the color of pure sapphires.

His wings were patterned with alternating dark and light feathers, and when he stretched them out during a yawn, the decoration was marvelous. His eyes were the truest emerald green conceivable, and it melted the hearts of all who peered into them.

His sister – who was given the name Catarina, meaning "pure" - was an exact mirror of her brother, save for his eyes and wings. Her body was clothed in feathers tinted like the sky during an Arctic sunrise.

Beyond their physical appearances, the two birds were alike in so many ways, and different in so many ways. Their true natures and strengths had yet to be uncovered, but both Blu and Jewel knew that they would undoubtedly please them.

They graciously taught the chicks how to fly, and once their stubby wings could hold them aloft, they paid Linda and Tulio a much-anticipated visit.

The two humans were enthralled by the little hybrids, and Tulio asked them if he could run some tests on them once they were older. Blu and Jewel agreed wholeheartedly.

In the time span from the laying of the eggs to the day of the aviary visit – whenever Blu could scrounge up some free time – he carefully made his way to Tulio in accordance with his examination schedule.

The gauze was replaced regularly, and Blu's scratched cornea had improved noticeably.

Today, while Jewel and the little ones were cavorting with Linda, Blu underwent his final ocular checkup. The soft gauze was removed, and Tulio inspected Blu's eye with a magnifying glass.

He nearly knocked the macaw from the counter-top in his excitement!

The eyelid stayed open, and when Tulio gave the macaw simple unilateral vision tests, Blu's vision was confirmed to have been restored.

He grabbed the macaw – in a manner unfit for a decorated ornithologist such as Tulio – and placed him down next to his mate and step-children.

A short chain of simple squawks resounded, and Blu was immediately assaulted by the female in her unbridled elation. His gift of sight had been restored, and although the eyelid scars still remained, all was well with him.

The four macaws remained at the aviary well into the evening hours, overcome with too much positive emotion to leave.

The smile of the moon hanging on the horizon ultimately forced them to say goodbye, and the two chicks looked ready to fall asleep where they stood. The macaws left through the flap in the front door and made a beeline for home.

Once they got settled down in their nest – with Natanael and Catarina safely tucked between their bodies – the veil of sleep blinded them all in mere minutes.

They were all cast into one interconnected dream, and in that luscious dream-scape, they played and danced and enjoyed each other's company.

Regardless of their origins or their appearances, their genes or their personalities, they were here to stay.

They were Blu and Jewel's children through and through.

They were loved and treasured and cherished by their parents, and Catarina and Natanael returned that swirl of emotions with as much energy as their tiny bodies could muster.

They could love and be loved, and that was all that mattered...

A/N: Well, that completes this lovely and alluring work of M-Rated seduction.

I intended for this update to be short, so I just wanted to let you all know. Writing 6500k+ word chapters takes loads of time and effort.

I have an amazing Rio fanfcition coming up next week (hopefully), and I intend for it to be my magnum opus and quite possibly my final Fanfiction story for Rio.

No spoilers, however. You'll just have to wait and see it when it arrives.

See you soon, guys.

\m/ O.O \m/